Socrates Café

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What to expect

Christopher Phillips is a man on a mission: to revive the love of questions that Socrates inspired long ago in ancient Athens. “Like a Johnny Appleseed with a master’s degree, Phillips has gallivanted back and forth across America, to cafés and coffee shops, senior centers, assisted-living complexes, prisons, libraries, day care centers, elementary and high schools, and churches, forming lasting communities of inquiry”—Utne Reader. Phillips not only presents the fundamentals of philosophical thought in this “charming, Philosophy for Dummies-type guide”—USA Today; he also recalls what led him to start his itinerant program and re-creates some of the most invigorating sessions, which come to reveal sometimes surprising, often profound reflections on the meaning of love, friendship, work, growing old, and others among Life’s Big Questions.

Critics Review

  • “An entertaining blend of memoir and philosophical reflection.”

    Publishers Weekly
  • “A noble, accessible tome to enliven the philosophy shelf.”

    Booklist
  • “A bracing, rollicking read about the spark that ignites when people start asking meaningful questions.”

    O Magazine

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